


probably shouldn't be so mean

by OldEmeraldEye



Series: Dice Fic Challenge [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Most of them are Death Eaters, Multiple Nongraphic Deaths, voldemort doesn't return
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25668238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldEmeraldEye/pseuds/OldEmeraldEye
Summary: In which laws of magic are consistently applied (and the plot is derailed from day one.)
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange & Narcissa Black Malfoy, Harry Potter & Tom Riddle | Voldemort
Series: Dice Fic Challenge [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1871956
Kudos: 5





	probably shouldn't be so mean

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt crown  
> Title is from Halsey's Castle

The issue, as it were, although no one would ever have cause to find out (even one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who would in time devote many hours of contemplation to the subject), was that soul shards, if left loose and not properly anchored to a living source, had a tendency to ... dissipate. Magic, after all, cannot continue to be generated after death.

Thus it came to be that, following his summary removal from mortality, that the only thing holding the remaining scrap of self of Britain's most recent Dark Lord from passing on was an unstable connection to the magical core of one Harry J. Potter, then all of one year and two months old.

Lacking such vitality and having no other sources to drain it from, Voldemort's other soul anchors soon ran dry. Sustaining itself on the near-incompatible energy of the House of Black's last house elf, Slytherins locket lasted the longest, despite the specimens otherwise failing body. He would be found later the nest day, still clutching the cold metal. By then, even Walburga Black's aggravation would have no impact.

But the wraith's grip on it's last remaining true fragment was shaky at best.

As it so happened, the wards placed on Number 4 were focused entirely on the physical threat Death Eaters and other malcontents posed, and would have allowed the nascent bond between Dark Lord and child to slowly settle and, over time, strengthen. Had Harry been directly placed there, Voldemort may well have gathered strength to return to physical form by time he reentered Britain's magical world.

Unfortunately for the former Dark Lord's continued existence, the boy was first taken behind formidable wards of Hogwarts to be looked over in relative security.

Just stepped beyond another set of wards to appearate, Bellatrix Lestrange, nee Black, dropped screaming. Her sister dragged her back to safety, wand twisting in a smooth pattern to match any medwitch. By the time she thought to turn her attention to the men, they were already dead.

Across the Isle, dozens of marked Death Eaters follow.

It bought Voldemort at most minutes. Wraiths, unlike ghosts, cannot store magic.

For Harry Potter, life continued as normal, safe in his relative's tender care for the next decade. In the Wizarding World, matters ... diverged. Sharply in some cases - the sudden demise of marked death eaters proved cataclysmic for their supporters moral, coming as it did on the tail of Voldemort's vanishing (and rumored death) - and unobtrusively in other ways that only a omnipotent time-traveler could predict.

But for now, Harry knew only the warmth of his blanket in the Dursley nursery, and the soft sounds of his cousin sleeping beside him.


End file.
